An Idiots Guide To Twitter – What To Know and Be Aware Of

An Idiots Guide To Twitter – What To Know and Be Aware Of

Are you new to social media sites and want to learn the basics of one of the most awesome platforms on the planet? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Twitter is a social networking service where about 330 million users communicate with each other through brief messages of up 280 characters. At present there’s almost 6,000 tweets being sent through cyberspace every second, varying from standard text messages to videos, gifs, memes, images, and even more. Twitter is one of the most in demand social networking platforms and is vastly different to other social media giants like Facebook and Instagram.

Twitter is a platform where members exchange an assortment of information; from politics, news, jokes, or just general thoughts about obscure topics! As opposed to having a circle of friends like Facebook, Twitter is based on followers (not specifically friends) so not only can you interact with friends, but also your favourite journalists, politicians, and sport stars alike. Everything you upload on Twitter is accessible publicly for anyone to find, but don’t worry, you can conveniently modify your preferences to private if you want to.

The very first step in understanding Twitter is to understand the basic terms and lingo used. The following lists the most popular vernacular:

Tweet – A 280-character message

Retweet (RT) – Sharing a tweet created by another user

Feed – The list of tweets you’ll find on your homepage from people that you follow

Handle – Your username

Mention (@) – A way of referencing other members in a tweet (e.g. @EAGames). Any user mentioned in a tweet is informed, being an easy way to engage with other users publicly

Direct Message (DM) – A private message (280 characters) sent to another user. You can either choose to accept DM’s from all users or just users that you follow

Hashtag (#) – A keyword or phrase used to describe a topic or theme in a discussion (e.g. #Vegans). You can locate tweets from all users that mention a particular hashtag by clicking on the hashtag itself.

Creating an Account

Creating an account is simple and easy, just download the app or head to www.twitter.com and click the signup tab. The full name you enter will be your display name, but this can be changed as often as you wish. Choose a username (or handle) so people can mention you by typing the @ symbol before your username. After you’ve entered your telephone number for authentication purposes, selected an avatar, and typed a quick bio about yourself so others can see your hobbies and interests, you’re good to go!

Joining the Twittersphere

As discussed earlier on, Twitter isn’t about friending, it’s about following. Not only can you follow your buddies, but also any other individuals of which you’re an admirer. Once you’ve signed up, Twitter will present a basic kind of setup wizard to help you get started, such as recommending some users that you might have an interest in following. You can give Twitter permission to search your contacts list to look for any of your friends that are using Twitter. Following friends and other users is really easy, and once you’ve started following certain users, Twitter will continue to provide suggestions for other users to follow depending on the sorts of users you’re already following. All the tweets of your followers will show in your Feed, so the more you follow, the more Tweets will appear in sequential order in your Feed.

Tweet Something

You can Tweet anything you like, so long as it satisfies Twitters rules and guidelines (https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-rules). This includes mentioning other users (@), promoting a topic or theme (#), or Retweeting other user’s comments (RT). Simply click on the ‘Compose New Tweet’ button and you can Tweet text, photos, videos, images, gifs – a whole range of different media that can be uploaded through your device. Don’t forget though, videos can only be a maximum of 2 minutes and 20 seconds in length, however photos and images do not count towards your character limit, which is pretty cool!

Once you’ve understood the basics of Twitter, the world is practically at your fingertips! You can keep up to date with the current trends, be the first to view viral posts, and engage with your friends and favourite personalities in a simple and user-friendly interface.

Once you’ve got started using Twitter, the rest will fall into place automatically, so why join the Twitterverse today? If you need any assistance with getting started on Twitter, simply get in contact with Internet Marketing Experts Tamworth on 1300 595 013, or visit our website for more information: http://www.internetmarketingexpertstamworth.com.au